Mr. Rocheleau

Technology/Engineering/Robotics

Lego Remote Control

Robotics Coding with RobotC > Robotics Coding with RobotC > Lego Remote Control

Lesson Attachments

LEGO EV3 Remote Control

In order to remotely control the EV3, you will need to write some software and configure a controller properly.  There is no “good way” to remotely control an EV3 because LEGO didn’t feel like making it easy.  There are several downloads available for your phone, but the only one that ever (barely) worked was removed because LEGO… well, you get the idea.  We, however, have been able to defeat the LEGO people and have figured out a way to use old NXT methods to control the EV3.  Follow these steps to accomplish this goal.

  1. Plug in your LEGO EV3 and the X-Box controller (Inno GamePad) into the computer.
  2. Open ROBOTC for LEGO software.
  3. Change (if needed) the Robot – Platform Type to LEGO EV3.
  4. Open this file and copy the text into a project.
  5. Click on WINDOW – CONFIGURE JOYSTICKS and select CUSTOM JOYSTICK CONFIG and make any changes to match the image below.
  6. Download to robot and remote control your EV3!

Wireless Control:

  1. Go to ROBOT – LEGO BRICK – COMMUNICATION LINK SETUP.
  2. Go to COMMUNICATION METHODS and change it to BLUETOOTH.
  3. Click the REPEAT SEARCH button.  This step will take a little while.
  4. Select your EV3 and click close.
  5. Accept the connection on the LEGO EV3.
  6. Download to robot.

If it does not work, you may need to reconnect the USB cable, change the communication method back to USB, and redownload the firmware.

This is the display you will see when you run the program.  You will notice that 3 buttons are highlighted.  They do not perfectly match the layout of your remote, but they are the controls that operate your EV3.  The joysticks control the drive motors (B+C) as you would expect.  The tophat buttons control the other motors (A+D) by rocking them up/down or right/left.  You can use standard or servo motors here.